{"id":226,"date":"2026-05-07T15:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=226"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:02:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:02:39","slug":"sweeping-california-law-on-single-use-plastic-meets-with-outrage-from-all-sides-as-it-goes-live-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=226","title":{"rendered":"Sweeping California law on single-use plastic meets with outrage from all sides as it goes live"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Within days of California\u2019s long-anticipated single use plastic law going into effect, environmentalists and anti-waste activists announced they plan to sue.<\/p>\n

Read more Trees that survived L.A.\u2019s wildfires are dying at alarming rate. Can they be saved?<\/a><\/p>\n

They say Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s administration and CalRecycle inserted exemptions favoring the plastic industry into the law\u2019s regulations that weaken it and undermine legislative intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese new rules create huge loopholes for plastic packaging that violate the law,\u201d said Avinash Kar, senior director of the toxics program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. \u201cWe expect to challenge this in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suit, which has not yet been filed, is supported by NRDC and Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based waste organization.<\/p>\n

On the other side, the packaging industry also is unhappy with the law, and although it has not officially announced its intent to sue, \u201cour members have real concerns about cost, compliance, and constitutionality,\u201d said Matt Clarke, spokesman for the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors, which sued Oregon earlier this year over a similar waste law. <\/p>\n

CalRecycle did not respond in time for publication.<\/p>\n

The environmental organizations say the new final regulations open the door to what is known as \u201cchemical recycling,\u201d which produces large amounts of hazardous waste. The law also contains problematic exemptions for certain categories of plastic foodware, they say. <\/p>\n

The language of the law forbids any kind of recycling that would produce significant amounts of hazardous waste. The new regulations allow for these recycling methods if the facilities are properly permitted. <\/p>\n

The new regulations also exempt certain products if they are already covered by federal law. For instance, a packaging company, retailer or distributor can claim that they have such a preemption, Kar said, and CalRecycle might not immediately review that claim. \u201cAnd as long as they don\u2019t review it, they\u2019ll get the exemption for as long as CalRecycle doesn\u2019t review it,\u201d creating a potential \u201cforever loophole.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornians were promised a system where producers take real responsibility for the waste they create,\u201d said Nick Lapis, advocacy director for Californians Against Waste. \u201cWhen regulations introduce broad exemptions and redefine key terms, that promise starts to erode. The details matter here, and right now they don\u2019t line up with the intent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, was signed by Newsom in 2022. It was considered landmark legislation because it addressed the scourge of single-use plastics, requiring plastic and packaging companies to use less of them and ensuring that by 2032, all food packaging is either recyclable or compostable. <\/p>\n

Accumulating plastic waste<\/u> is overwhelming waterways and oceans<\/u>, sickening marine life and threatening human health<\/u>.<\/p>\n

The law\u2019s intent was not only to reduce it, but also to put the onus and cost of dealing with it on packaging producers and manufacturers, not consumers and local governments. It was supposed to incentivize companies to consider the fate of their products and spur innovation in material redesign.<\/p>\n

Read more Xavier Becerra shows that his loyalty lies with fossil fuels<\/a><\/p>\n

According to one state analysis<\/u>, 2.9 million tons of single-use plastic and 171.4 billion single-use plastic components were sold, offered for sale, or distributed during 2023 in California.<\/p>\n

Similar laws have been passed in Maine, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington. In some of those states, however, the laws have been challenged by product manufacturers and others. Oregon\u2019s law is on hold while a lawsuit by the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors works its way through the courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of the same problems in California that we flagged in Oregon,\u201d said Clarke, the trade group spokesman. \u201cGiven California\u2019s scale, the cost implications are going to be even larger. Our legal counsel has noted that California\u2019s proposed fees are already higher than what other states have put forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jan Dell of Last Beach Cleanup, an anti-plastic waste group based in Laguna Beach, doesn\u2019t believe the law will work \u2014 irrespective of the final regulations \u2014 and said the \u201cexorbitant\u201d cost of its implementation will either spur producers to sue, or they\u2019ll end up passing the higher costs onto consumers.<\/p>\n

She referred to a , the state-sanctioned group established to represent and oversee the implementation of the law on behalf of the plastic and packaging industry. It finds the law will increase the cost of disposal between six and 14 times for common products, such as Windex bottles, made of polyethylene terephthalate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the producers don\u2019t successfully sue to stop the fees, this will certainly add to product inflation for CA consumers,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cCalifornians already have to pay exorbitantly high curbside collection fees for trash, recycling, and organics … so, starting in 2027, our groceries will cost a LOT more but we won\u2019t see a reduction in our waste bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher \u201cSmitty\u201d Smith<\/u>, a partner at law firm Saul Ewing in Los Angeles, who councils companies and interest groups on SB 54 and other Extended Producer Liability laws, said that although he could see areas of the law that \u201ccould be sharper and avoid the legal challenges … you can\u2019t stop people from suing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the law already has sparked changes in how companies think and respond to concerns about waste.<\/p>\n

One of his national fast-food chain clients has realized that if its brand name is on plastic packaging, it\u2019s that company\u2019s responsibility, he said, so \u201cthey\u2019ve spent the past year mapping out their franchise agreements, their supply chain agreements, their producer agreements, to figure out\u201d what it needs to do to comply.<\/p>\n

He said in the past, companies have paid little attention to these details and just let their franchisees figure this kind of thing out. Now, they\u2019re spending a lot of time and money \u201cto wrap their arms around what their supply chain looks like and like, what post consumer use of their plastic products looks like and what their regulatory obligations are.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s bringing a new dialogue within companies. And that, Smith said, is what could make this law so powerful.<\/p>\n

Read more How I learned to stop worrying about noncitizens voting in L.A. elections<\/a><\/p>\n

Times staff writer<\/i> Meg Tanaka contributed to this report<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

California’s long anticipated single-use plastic law is now in effect. Environmentalists and anti-waste activists are suing, saying loopholes make it toothless and even harmful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate"],"yoast_head":"\nSweeping California law on single-use plastic meets with outrage from all sides as it goes live - California Relocation Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/california-relocation-journal.com\/?p=226\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sweeping California law on single-use plastic meets with outrage from all sides as it goes live - California Relocation Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California's long anticipated single-use plastic law is now in effect. 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